Day 27, Art Play, Seaside and Menopause

Today I have had a good day at the art table. I feel like being creative every day really is starting to pay off and I am becoming more able to take an idea and run with it in my own way.

Art piece number 1 was from a freebie by Artful Haven. I accept that I used her downloads and followed pretty closely with this one, but I was feeling pretty rubbish all morning from Menopausal Nausea (does anyone else get this?) and I needed to take my mind off how I was feeling so I just watched and played along in my homemade junk journal. I really enjoyed the lesson, and then added a little extra to it when the video was finished.

Art piece number 2 was inspired by a YouTube video by Art_Journal Love. Just a quick bit of magazine and acrylic play. I grabbed what was nearby and made a page – I have to say I am super happy with this one, inspired by the OP but definitely my page.

We popped out today for a long lunch, I mentioned in a previous post how we are looking at a holiday home near the coast. Well we went to see one today, its 45 mins from our home, but on one of the best (but most crumbly) of Norfolk coast lines. It’s not somewhere I have been too recently, so it was nice to take hubby to a new place he hasn’t been to. After viewing the property, which was nice but probably not for us, we took a walk to the beach. It was a bit windy – can you tell? I couldn’t see to take the photo let alone check that I “looked OK”. But we managed to get 1.8 mile walk done whilst we were there, then had to get home as hubby had to get back to work and we had to be home in time for kids to get out of school!

Art piece number 3 is my day 2 lesson in the Karen Campbell Fun Fab Fairy drawing. It’s a 5 day drawing class, where we are being taught in small stages how to draw a fairy sitting on a mushroom, and in true Karen style – its awesome! Here are my day 1 and 2 progress pictures. We will be adding a little bit to the picture each day.

  • fun fab fairy day 1
    fun fab fairy day 1
  • fun fab fairy day 2
    fun fab fairy day 2
Fun Fab Fairy Drawing Class

Menopause : If anyone has any tips for coping with the morning nausea feeling I would be very grateful! I was unfortunately never pregnant long enough to experience the joys of morning sickness, but I am getting it every day now and its rubbish! Some days worse than others, I am noticing a pattern i.e full moon, change HRT patch etc. I drink peppermint tea as soon as it starts and it lasts a couple of hours. It would be nice if it would go away though!

That’s all folks …..

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 26, Monday List day

I started the day off by making a list of all the things I NEED to achieve today, over and above all the things I normally do on a daily basis. I achieved about 50% of it then decided it was time to Art 🙂

Today’s art journal page has been done in my Mindful Giraffe Notebook. Its another pastels page, I decided to combine it with this weeks #scrawlrsketch prompt. I must admit I enjoyed doing this, I am new to pastels and its taking some getting used to working with it. I need to find a good way to blend, I am using cotton buds and they are a little scratchy on the paper. I like how I used the white at the end to create the highlighted lines on the umbrellas I think it gave a sort of metallic sheen because it picked up the tones of the colours underneath.

April 26th Journal page Pastels & ScrawlrSketch Umbrella
April 26th Journal page Pastels & ScrawlrSketch Umbrella

And just for fun, and because it seems compulsory to have a picture like this in the art room.

Max wants attention when I am trying to photograph my work
Max wants attention (read that as food!) when I am trying to photograph my work

Just a quick page today I am afraid. Kids are home from school, homework is being done and I need to carry on with my chores.

I cant quite believe that we are coming to the close of the month long blog-along. I have really enjoyed doing this, I have nothing yet lined up as a challenge for May. I am sure it wont last and I will find something to keep me occupied, but nothing in the mix at the moment.

Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! 

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 25, Sunday Art Day!

We had to get up early today, our daughter made plans to go out and see friends, and that meant we all got up for early breakfast, the plan was to have a decent walk, and enjoy the day. But for some reason, we both felt a bit Meh, so the walk suffered, which is to say, we didn’t go. I popped to Tesco for some supplies for this evenings meal, but other than that, we were properly lazy today.

Our son has watched TV for most of the day, Hubby has a new driving game for the Xbox, so that’s been put through its paces, he also has a funky app for his phone so he can have a “heads up” display for speed etc. Its quite cool, and its fun to hear people like Anthony Davidson via a game. I have spent the day play with art supplies.

Todays journal page, in the Archer and Olive notebook is a picture drawn by me, and coloured using Stabillo Carbothello Pastel Pencils. Hubby bought them for me for Christmas and today is the first time I have really had a proper play. I haven’t a clue how to use pastels so I had to listen to a YouTube video. It was really informative but I definitely need to play and learn some more. The notebook paper fared well with the pastel, but it doesn’t have much tooth so i guess it will ultimately just rub off if I don’t seal it. (hairspray??)

After this I decided to play with my ScrawlrBox that arrived yesterday. I absolutely love Watercolours, they are my first real art play time and it’s what started me off being an “artist” so when I opened the box I was excited. A set of 5 watercolour paints from Daler & Rowney, a Waterbrush from Derwent as well as some watercolour paper and a couple of chinagraph pencils. A watercolour white came as part of the set, one of the things I have learnt is a watercolourist doesn’t use white, you use water to create value. So I’m not sure why this is part of the set but I suppose it will allow tonal change rather than value change, but honestly I don’t think I am likely to use it very much.

The challenge is “birds of a feather” its sounds exciting and something I can get my teeth into. These are all of the images I have created using the kit today.

Also, I remember I have paid for membership to The Watercolour Academy, but I haven’t really enjoyed the teaching style so I have ignored it quite a bit, however I signed in today and did this lesson albeit on silent and slowed down by 50%. The one thing I have learnt from her is that every colour can be mixed from the 3 primaries and so I am a lot less afraid to mix colour now than I was when I started. This is meant to be a soap bubble with reflections. I don’t think it looks like it, but I guess that’s my fault for not actually listening and just trying to follow the video silently. I did use the white to create the reflection whereas she used gouache, I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it, yes I was THAT lazy!

Well that’s it for today, everything is packed away, we have our evening coffee and the TV remote is on hand. Until tomorrow, TTFN!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 24, Saturday

We had a lazy start to the day, I spent a couple of hours reading and commenting on blogs whilst drinking my coffee in bed. Whilst reading Amy’s blog, I decided I knew what today’s art page would be about, once I could get to the art table. Amy mentioned a prompt list she had seen on Pinterest, all about “Me, Myself and I”. I decided I could do this, Amy talked about some of the prompts in her blog so I decided I would journal with photos. I spent the afternoon looking for answers to the prompt and appropriate images either from my own stash or Google searches.

April 24th page 1
April 24th page 1
April 24th page 2 & 3
April 24th page 2 & 3
April 24th Page 4 & 5
April 24th Page 4 & 5

I initially glued a ladies face to the page, then gesso’d before cutting around her. The plan was to use the image to doodle and make the spread be more about her face. However the pages took on a own life of their own and in the end I used 3 acrylic paints to make the pages, mixing up the layers and ensuring they were cohesive but different. Also I added a layer of shimmering gold to each page. Hubby saw the first page when it was painted, and he said it had an Indian feel to it. He then didn’t see it again until they were all finished. I think I surprised him a bit! Each picture represents one of the prompts on the list.

Saturday Night Food Truck

We regularly get a Spicery subscription box. Its something we have done for years after I gave it as a first Christmas present for hubby way back when, and we have continued getting it as the spices and recipes are amazing. Mostly we have date nights, but every so often we get a food truck that the children get to enjoy too. Tonight was on of those nights. We are really lucky in that they are not fussy eaters and they do like a bit of spice in their food. Hubby tends to do the cooking for this, I am usually on hand to help chop veggies and mostly do the washing up, it works this way especially as its mostly a clean kitchen by the time dinner is served and kids have less after dinner clear up to deal with.

Tonight we had Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw. Hubby spent the afternoon preparing the food. Deep fried coated chicken in a sticky sweet and sour sauce, sushi rice, pickled salad veg, spicy slaw all on a bed of lettuce leaves. Our boy that does not really like salad veg yet was the first to finish, licking his lips and exclaiming how great it was. We all finished with very full bellies and no-one wanted a dessert – a very rare occurrence!

Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw
Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw

After dinner, we watched a movie. I can’t actually believe it but I introduced Hubby as well as the kids to Edward ScissorHands. I guess that’s what I get for being married to a man 12 years my junior, every so often I get to surprise him with a decent movie from “my day” ha ha. Everyone really enjoyed it, and our daughter, who is very into the Greek & Roman Gods and mythology declared it was “the same story as Hades and Persephone”. I cant wait to hear what her classics teacher has to say about that, but it was good listening to her reasons for it.

Anyway, its 8:30pm, I have been yawning my head off for ages (mostly due to an early evening glass of wine I am sure and nothing at all to do with a late night last night!), So I shall sign off for now and see you all tomorrow!

Enjoy your evening!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 23 St Georges Day

I’m a bit late writing this today, its been one of those sort of days.

I decided to go to Matalan this morning, our Daughter needs some new clothes for school and Matalan is a good place for her. She’s too grown up for kids clothes now so teeny tiny women’s clothes are needed. I’m not jealous of her teeny tiny waist line, I promise I’m not (said through gritted teeth ha ha!). No honestly she is a wonderful size and long may she be the beauty that she is. Anyway I digress. After Matalan I just HAD to go to Hobbycraft, it’s right next door after all so it would be rude not to! I was in there far longer than the clothes shop that’s for sure! I was pretty good and didn’t spend a fortune, I got some bargains, mostly stuff I “needed” (who am I kidding) I didn’t NEED those lettering stencils, nor the items from the reduced pile although I bagged some bargain cotton fabric for journal making and I got a freebie Giant Posca pen in bright pink but did I really need the notebooks when I make my own? Did I need the card stock or the inkpads (Not Tim Holtz as it was silly expensive even in the sale) But I did pick up a £2 pack of mini alphabet wooden stamps that I have wanted for months and they don’t sell via their online store, so now I can do the stamping on my art journal pages with a better size lettering.

matalan hobbycraft
Should I stay or should I go?

Today’s art journal page took a lot of working through. I genuinely had no idea what to do today. I didn’t even start it until about 2 pm, and I finished it around 7, no I didn’t spend 5 hours on it, I also cooked tea and drove the boy to Tennis and back. But it probably did take me longer than I wanted. I guess that’s what happens when you make something without planning, and without following a tutorial! I am so used to spending an hour or two watching and playing along to a video, that actual work involved in thinking up a page (or 4) is much harder. I did a half cut out Dragon, this was harder than I expected and I should really have left some more structure to him, the boy has named him “Flappy Dragon”. I made a journal note card for the pocket, and on the back I wrote 9 facts about St George, which I got from English Heritage website.

st georges day page 1
St Georges Day page 1
st georges day page 2
St Georges Day page 2 Showing full spread and “Flappy Dragon”
st georges day page 4
St Georges Day page 4 – Pocket and hidden journal card
St Georges day page 5
St Georges day page 5 Showing Journal Card and Facts

The only other thing of note today is that we are seriously considering a holiday home near the coast. What started as a throw away comment last week is becoming a hot topic, and we now have several alerts setup for RightMove , we even went to view a property today! It would be lovely to have something to look forward to for this year, we really don’t think foreign travel is going to be a possibility again this year, and if the UK can keep the R down, and things stay “open” it would be nice to have somewhere to go. We are all a little bored with our own back garden.

Well that’s it for today, its time to get our daughter from Guides and then our evening can start. I’m planning to art, Hubby is planning to drive around an Xbox racetrack, we both plan on a glass of wine!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.